


Timeless

by LimpBlotter



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Magnulia, TAZ - Freeform, during the lost decade, it ends with her dying so its angst, raven's roost rebellion, this is my attempt at nanowrimo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 06:33:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12625263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LimpBlotter/pseuds/LimpBlotter
Summary: Time was never something Magnus understood. He had too much of it when he didn't need it, then too little when he wanted more of it. In time things change, things start again and die. But there is one thing that goes untouched by time. Every moment she loved him, every moment they had loved. No matter the years that pass and the new homes that are built on the ruins of Raven Roost. His memory of Julia is timeless.





	Timeless

**Author's Note:**

> This is my Nanowrimo attempt (50k fic for the month of November) I did a lot of self editting because I didn't get a beta buuuut I hope you guys like it. I had big feelings who I wanted to dedicate a huge fic too and I love good boy Mango.

_When I was a wee lass my mother use to let me ride on her horse and take me for long rides along the flora filled glens that lined the bottom of Raven’s Roost Cliff side. Back then before there was a path leading through the forest, my mum made her own path. With horse in her hand she paved a way only she saw in her eyes. I remember how it felt, going into what felt like the unknown and yet feeling so at home. Her confidence was contagious as she strode into the forest, seeing things that weren’t there. You know what she told me? She said, “Julia, home isn’t a place where a roof is built or the place where your papa sets up shop” I remember she said. “It’s where your adventure and your heart meet. And no matter how far or dangerous the adventure may seem, as long as your heart is in it, you’ll never travel too far from home. Home will be, right where you are.”_

_Those were words I’d remember for the rest of my life. Live by them even, even after my mum died. She taught me that roads never paved themselves and it’s a waste of good time to wait for someone to make the first step. She taught me to take as many first and unknown steps as I could because time was not promised to no one, not her, not my pa, and certainly not me._

_Time, like it took my mama, didn’t care much for what plans we make tomorrow. Time was rude like that. Time would show up and run out just when you least expect it, then all your plans from chores and suppers go out the window. One second you think you’re going to be coming home to a stew, the next you’re burying your parent along the tree line adding her spirit to the sea of trees._

_But see even with all the uncertainties, all the lessons life and death have tried to teach me about not wasting time, I never paid time much thought. Ilived my life, only thinking of tomorrow even knowing just a much as the next, tomorrow might not come. But as people that’s what we do. We think of tomorrow. We live. We plan. We find time to make room in our lives even knowing its uncertain for how long._

_Because, time might be the end all be all, but no matter how much time we all really have. It is enough._  
_In my time alive, I not only lived. I fought. I bled and sweat, I fell madly and hopelessly in love and I made use of the time I was given. Now that I think of it..._  
_Time is not an end and was not my end either. My life goes on. It travels the roads he walks. As he paves no paths into the ground and does amazing, remarkable things I am there. For as long as my name continues to dance on the brim of his lips or stay coveted in the comforts of his thoughts._  
_Time did not rob me of my life. It only robbed him of the time he had with me._

–Julia Burnsides, nee. Waxmen.

* * *

  
No man had the right to own a forest. It was ground, earth, whatever anyone wanted to call it but no man had the entitlement to own the ground. There was no such law or right that allowed any person to walk across a field and claim that all he touches is his. People made homes out of the shared land, they made livelihoods built on top of a world they did not know but inhabited. Home was not the dirt where civilizations settled on; home was the sentiment of safety and family that resided within.

So there was animosity here. Watching as men with money and power came under the impression of staking a claim on what was already a home. No one truly wanted an outward fight, there was hope it was a hushed hostility. But not all peaceful ends lead to a peaceful mean. And as the winding forest sides along the foot of a lavish Cliffside housed these entitled thoughts of savage men of brass and leathered armor, there was no chance peace would win here.

  
From behind a brush of green, obscuring figures in the shadows the great trees, tall and proud casted down, a pair of eyes stared readily ahead. “Ready” she breathed softly, her breath barely a hum that escaped her lips. From above a high tree, back pressed against a branch practically completely covering her from the prying eyes from below, Julia pulled the taunt string of her bow back. She closed one eye and zeroed in as intently as she could at her prize. Slow, her breathing came as every muscle in her body locked in place. She was a hunter, a ranger, this weapon was an extension of her arm. And with a pose of someone who had carefully crafted her skill she waited. She was on the prowl.

After a few moments of stillness, noise began to pick up from down a slightly groomed path of shrub. It was created by the constant movement of bodies along what was supposed to be a rarely visited piece of land owned by the working woodsmen of the nearby town. Clearly this was a matter of busybodies who had no business being here. Just as the noise picked up loud enough to make Julia’s ears twitched from her peripheral she saw them approaching towards her.

Two men, guards were walking along the trees. Every so often the etched an ‘x’ along the side of each tree they passed while conversing to each other.  
Julia bit back the urge to knick one on the shoulder, she posed herself.

As the two men approached, one having faced away from her to speak to the other she released her arrow. Silent, it sliced through the air, only millimeters away from the men’s faces as it drove into the tree they were walking in front of. They turned their heads, weapons drawn to the secretive assailant. By the time their eyes found the spot Julia had perched up in, she was gone but there was rustling as her body weaved through the shrubbery.

Julia had long landed on her feet and began to dash. In the distance the sound of heavy metal armor clanged around as the angered commands of men asking her to cease were happily ignored. There was not a thing they could say to stop her. Julia ran like the wind. Her curls bounced and unfurled themselves from her bun. In mid leap over a thick uprooted root of a tree, her hair was completely undone, falling like a mane of black down to her back. Fists clenched, arms swinging as fast as her legs were striding she rode the gusts of wind, watched upward as the trees began to thin and the cerulean blue sky, cloudless and warm, shined down on her.

As the trees began to thin the men started to catch fleeting glimpses of Julia’s shape shifting along the shadows, one man boldly took aim and threw his dagger at her direction. With a hand extended Julia grabbed onto the trunk of a tree. Without breaking her stride she used her momentum to force her body to swing around completely along the cylindrical body of her arboreal friend.

Not only did she avoid the dagger completely. While she made a perfect 360 back around the tree, she had come back around at the precise moment to when the dagger would have met her body. She opened her mouth and snapped her teeth shut with a hard, metal clamp. She smirked menacingly up at the bewildered men as she held the very dagger betwixt her teeth. “My turn” She spat the dagger out of her mouth and aimed her bow.

Both men turned to match towards her and right before they took another step, she released and she aimed into the leaves. The arrow shot right through a weakened branch holding a hive of hornets. As it came crashing down on top of the men, they found themselves not only stunned and prone, they were ambushed by an army of angry stingers. Julia laughed giddily at their wails, watching the ‘strong’ militia retreat with welts. Though this was a great sight for her, as she leaned against the body of the tree, her laugh died down considerably after a few moments.

Kalen’s men probably could have kept pushing on. What took them a few seconds to recover was all the time she needed to run off, leaving only their egos and heads wounded.  
Julia didn’t stop running. She ran until her lungs felt like they were on fire and even then she kept running. Sweat began to trickle down her face, the sun now exposed to her, beat down on the top of her head but she ran. She got far from the forest, passing the sign that read ‘Construction’ and skidded against loose dirt to a horse that was waiting promptly by a babbling brook

“That will show those assholes where they can start planning Kalen’s ‘summer home’” She scoffed having probably scared those men or at least annoyed them too much to continue work. Her fingers combed through the horse’s mane “Plan it right up his polished arse.” She giggled then steadied her eyes upward at the various peaks that made up the intricate spires of Raven’s Roost.

Home, a home she had always known. She knew every face, every name, every shop even every board around the three different spires that collectively created the town. Going home was inevitable; it was only a matter of time before she got hungry, tired, or simply lonesome and needed the comforts of her father. Until then there was a call much stronger than the want to return to the comforts of home.

The wind danced through her thick, ebony curls then continued down the glen where the brook trailed downward across the stretch of tall grass to more unseen earth. Julia grasped the reigns to her steed and hoisted herself up, tossing one leg around the horse’s frame. “Home will be there…but who knows what’s waiting out there” she motioned towards the direction where the wind was blowing. There was never anything of true interest at home.

“Heya!” with a sharp twist to the right the horse’s body followed and took off in a fast gallop. The comforting shadow that her comforting home created in its towering height over the glen shrank behind her. It grew smaller and smaller as the world before her opened endlessly.

She followed the brook down the glen, until the shroud of tall grass turned into a downhill slope. There were various swells of bumpy, hill like formations that transitioned from grass to exposed, uneven rock. Uneven and unsteady, untamed and unkempt was the wilds of the land a lot alike to Julia's mind. She wandered. Her mind wandered to far off places, places she painted along the crystal clear sky. She chased the visions in her eyes, she chased the clouds and the sun following beaten and unfollowed marks in the land. She was here.

Where ever she went she wanted to make sure she left her impression on the earth. She left a mark where she stepped as she left no stone unturned. She chased the streams of water that bent into riverbeds and ran along the forest and later down hills and canyons. Julia rode to the peak of a hill top, staring down at the land below, the glens that folded over in greens. Her hair moving with the wind as everything around her dared her to continue. Dared her to leave.There was a whole world out there. A world filled with adventures and people and no matter how far her mind went…home was still in her eyes. 

 

Back home...

 

Tensions had been growing around town since the new governor came into power 4 years prior. Governor Kalen brought with him enough men to make his point known and found it unsettling when his soldiers returned with bruised faces and egos. Most were not even welcomed in town, as Kalen himself was no longer a favorable man. Between the taxes that were making it impossible to earn enough coin for a living, it seemed his ideas to expand Raven’s Roost only benefited those who were willing to buy out the people who had lived here. Kalen sought to tear up the founder’s legacy of a town built like a nest to raise hopes that would take off into the sky and start up a town where he could make the most profit.

He did not expect the town’s people to react as soundly as they did. They were barely getting by these days with all the taxes looming over them. What kept most of the people who refused to uproot themselves here, was the way the people rallied together. Like a family. The people were different and made a town to match.

There weren’t many towns like Raven’s Roost. None could compare to the infrastructure of the town. An entire town balanced along tall, towering pillars that formed a cliff side where each natural rock pyre formed a foundation for a series of shops and homes. Bridges connected pillars together. To the south of Raven’s Roost nothing but an overhead view of endless forest and trees nearly hundreds of miles straight down. A death drop to those faint of heart. To the northward side of the town, a single path that led in and out of Raven’s Roost on to a winding forest road out towards Neverwinter which was about a five day’s journey more or less.

The tall peaks of support beams kept the cliff side city in place, with the views all around it was a town above a sea of endless greenery and forests. For as far as the eye can see it was almost like Raven’s Roost was above it all. The world and all of its changes, home remained as it was always was since it was founded by a handful of family starting folk many centuries ago.

It wasn’t the most up and coming place to be but it was home to a good handful of people. The people were warm, the sights were grand but it was the craftsmanship of the town that was the real gem. The gem called the Craftsmen’s Corridor. A beautiful row of wood front shops but most of those paled in comparison to the Hammer and Tongs. Something about the red cable roof and dark oak face that made the shop so forgiving.

There was also a good man running the place with his daughter. A man the people of Raven’s Roost trusted more than anyone.

The doors to a tavern only a bridge walk away from the Craftsmen Corridor swung open as a good sized man, salt and pepper hair, white mustache and a frame that indicated he kept himself busy walked right in. He gently took his small, round, silver framed glasses off and rubbed them against his shirt as he approached the bar which was being manned or rather, womaned, by fiery haired Sherlyn.

“Steven, well ain’t it a sight to see you out and about.” The red haired woman, with a few streaks of silver peeking through smiled. Without breaking a beat she started to pour and serve, “lemme guess, Julia still not home yet?” She took notice of the splitting ends of his mustache, clearly from being twirled one too many times around a nervous, pandering finger.

This was a look Sherlyn, being a mother and a wise lass, knew well. A parent’s worry was a common look. “She’s run off again, I send her to fetch me some damn lumber and she’s…she’s out doing lord knows what.” Steven smiled through there was clear exhaustion in his eyes. It wasn’t easy being a single father of a girl who had been born to rebel. She was even born earlier than due. Julia never followed rules perfectly or take the time to think her actions over before rushing in.

Sherlyn twisted her mouth into a small smile. “Come now, I’m sure she’ll be on her way back home soon.” She spoke in hopes of easing a father’s worry.

Raven’s Roost though its location was unconventional had all the stylings and charm to be a lovely place to raise a family. For Steven Waxmen, his family had been raising their own here since the day the town was founded. It ran in his blood, it was home. “Girl can’t seem to stay put even if I glued her to an oak tree.” Steven retorted, no use in trying to spot her. If he did, she’d disappear again.

When it came to his girl, it was best to leave her be. No matter how far Julia strayed from the path of lazy, provincial town life; she always made her way back home.  
“What? She doesn’t find carpenter’s life to be as fun as you make it seem?” A man at the other end of the bar smiled up at Steven. “Better hope whoever she ends up with has more of an interest in your work or else you’ll be selling that place sooner than you think.”

A nosy guffaw erupted from Sherlyn who was cleaning some cups with a cloth behind the cherry wood, bar counter. “If you’re bettin’ on Julia getting hitched to keep your business in the family then you might as well hand the deeds over to Kalen and save yourself the trouble.”

Both men cringed at the thought. Last thing Steven wanted was Kalen getting his grubby hands all over his place. “Nerve’ that bastard’s got. After you helped him get into power he turns around and pulls the rug right from under us…” Steven’s eyes fell a little to his glass. Sherlyn with a heavy hand whaaacked Marvin against the shoulder, the aged ginger hair woman packed one hell of a hit. “Not meanin’ no harm, Steven you didn’t know…him or what he was bringing, you’ve always had Raven’s Roost’s best at heart, we know that.”

“That’s good and all…” Steven chuckled a bit, sucking up the twisting guilt that began to stir inside of him. “But its true, I brought him here. I fought for him when he promised he’d help Raven Roost…and I’m why he’s here not makin’ good with any of that horse shit.” Steven’s grip tightened on the glass so hard a crack began to form along the side. Upon realizing it, he loosened his grip and gently shoved the glass aside.

Steeping in silence Sherlyn side eyed Marvin as if trying to single him to say or do something, when that didn’t work it was up to her to push the narrative along before Steven worried himself sick. “Speaking of bringin’ folk…we’ve got a new resident here in Raven’s Roost.”

That caught Mr. Waxmen’s attention. Raven’s Roost was a way’s away from most big places, not exactly ideal unless people were the settling and stagnant type. They saw little movement when it came to real estate and even less with Kalen enforcing tax after tax, regulation after regulation. If anything Steven knew of a few businesses and families that had packed up and left, tired of the iron grip Governor Kalen had on the place. “We do?”

“Oh yea, a young fella, came by around dawn with an older woman. She was showing him a house opened up after the blacksmith packed up shop.”  
“You mean that lil’ place at the top of the spire? Got a nice view…” Steven nodded, being that high up meant few people were going to bother with visiting. Good amount of room. Raven’s Roost was built on natural spires formed by the side of the cliff similar to well…the way birds roost high in trees. As the town grew, the founders (Steven’s family included) built support beams, platforms to walk on and bridges to connect the town.

Truly there were people who lived on the edge.

“It’s right above your place, Steven.” Marvin added, “New Fella; he…he didn’t seem to bright. I was wavin’ at him but he was looking up and around like he’s never been outside before. Kinda worried he might fall off the damn side of the platform.”

Steven nodded a bit, “could be one of Kalen’s boys. He’s been moving in ‘private’ parties no doubt trouble makers to push us all out so he can level the town and build whatever it is he wants.” He slowly got up and placed a coin on the bar counter. “I’ll give him the good ol’ Steven Salutation.” With a small and familiar smirk Steven left the establishment leaving an air of mischief behind him as he walked through the swinging tavern doors.

At the top of the spire, outside of a home that he had the keys too, Magnus Burnsides stood out by the edge of the supported platform and looked out over the endless fields. His eyes glazed over woodlands that stretched out to the horizons, his eyes falling from the treetops to the field were a horse and its rider took off quickly. The air was crisp and unfamiliar which was all his mind really thought about. Magnus felt out of place…here…but all over from the sky to the dirt there was something unsettling. And a primal desire sprang from inside of him to want to hunt it down. Whatever unthinkable feeling was plaguing him he wanted to violently rip it out of his mind and send it off.

He inhaled slowly, his eyes looking for any signs of familiarity, any sign of what was once a memory of his…but he came up empty handed down to how he even managed this. Getting here, with nothing but the clothes on his back and not a cent to his name but he had a key to a house.

Magnus never felt so lost, a feeling he couldn’t shake. A nervousness he rarely knew. It was being an outsider for the first time yet he couldn’t pinpoint a time he wasn’t an outsider. His life was blotches of memories of being an only child who’s only friends were the elderly or animals. This feeling of misfit should have been normal but it twisted in his gut like a hot knife carving out nothing but wrong. This was wrong. Something about this was wrong.

And it was a wrong he couldn’t bear his fists and fight. He closed his eyes and internalized these things that made little to no sense to him. A deep rooted instinct alerted him as feet started to approach and his body turned fast, almost panicky towards the sound.

“Hail …and well met, stranger.” Steven stood there, somewhat startled by Magnus wide eye and alarmed reaction. His eyes darted down from Magnus’s expression to his hands, where one was holding the key in an abnormally tight, almost shaking grasp the other was flexing his fingers methodically, each digit carefully and controlled.

“Um…” Magnus swallowed down the lump of unfamiliarity and faced the stranger with as much kindness he could muster in his time of mental disarray. “Hail and well met.”

Steven seemed to loosen a bit, he rubbed his chin a little as he eyed up the home Magnus had purchased from a former resident who couldn’t make a living here. He wondered how long before this young man followed suit? Before they all did. “Figure I’d come and greet the newest face around town, don’t get many of those around here.”

“You don’t?” Magnus pried, he wanted to know where he was. He wanted to know why this place of all places. “Where… um, if you don’t mind me asking a strange question—“

“Boy you plenty strange, I ain’t too surprised if your question is too.”

“Right, right sooo, where am I exactly?”

Steven arched a brow and tilted his head. He let out an airy scoff, disbelief colored his face. “You don’t know where you are? You got this house right here and you don’t know where you are?” It was unbelievable.

Yet, Magnus’s face softened. A vulnerable frustration furrowed his brows. He just stood there in his …nothing. His mind felt like someone had dropped a puzzle and all the pieces were scrambling to fit into places that they didn’t exactly go…they were part of the whole picture but the details were wrong…the placements…

Steven in his near fifty some years of age watched him with the same keen eye he watched his daughter. Being a father taught him the tell-tale signs of a liar. Of a sneak…of course Kalen went around his better judgment, he was even more focused on what was the true intention of every face in his town. He looked over Magnus’s gruff face and could tell this:

Magnus was a fighter. He was built like it. Muscles, scars were all stories of a man who had seen some trouble in his years and never backed down. Or perhaps caused the trouble.

Steven also realized one more important thing. Magnus was telling the truth. Somewhere, in his vacant expression, in the wall his broad shoulders hung low with no pride or strength, there was…an overwhelming sense of loss. A loss a man like Steven was very kin too. It had only been just years ago when he lost his wife, now in the midst of losing his town…but Magnus’s loss was so different.

In eyes of a young man he had a profound chaos in his eyes. A loss that ran deep, afloat and wadding through the unknown. “Alright, fella.” Steven rubbed his hands together.  
“Hm?” Magnus looked up and found Steven was looking out at the view of the green forests that blanketed the land below Raven’s Roost.

“No use dwindlin’ on things we don’t know, right?” He clapped once. “Let’s work on the things we can fix, you got yourself a house but do you got yourself a job?”

“Uh—“

“Well me Angus what are you good at?”

“Its Magnus and…I don’t know—“ He yelped as Steven suddenly grabbed Magnus’s large and hands and started to look them over. He turned them over, looked at his fingers, knuckles, palms and all.

“—ight…good hands, looks like you’ve pulled your own weight before.” He nodded, “ a bit calloused so hardwork ain’t no stranger…how are you with wood? Ever hold a knife? An Axe? How much can you lift, fella?”

Magnus slowly pulled his hands away and started to answer each question, counting them on his fingers as he did. “Um…I don’t know. I don’t know…I’m not sure but I’d like to and um..” He turned his head and looked for something to lift. He eyed a large boulder sitting up against the wall of his house. Without giving it a second thought he walked himself over to the boulder, bending down so to dig his fingers into the gooves were the bottom of the rock met the ground.

Steven watched with just mild worry that the man was going to throw his back out. “Now-now fella don’t go to—“ He paused watching as Magnus’s arms tensed. His body only shook once before he heaved the boulder up from the ground and over his head. With a sudden rush of energy, as if his body had forgotten how strong he really was, he ran towards the edge of this spiral and launched the boulder off the cliff.

The rock soared across the sky and landed in the forest taking down a tree with it. “I’ll be damned…you’re a big fella ain’t ya?” Steven rubbed the back of his head. “I don’t really need anything like that but…I could use some hands around the shop. These old bones aren’t made for lifting much these days.” He turned to Magnus who was huffing and smiling with delight. He wasn’t even paying attention to what Steven was saying.

He closed his fingers against his palm and let the buzz run through his veins in a way that was familiar. The sense of nostalgia eased a lot of his blanked feelings.

**“You listenin?”**

Magnus shook his head a bit, “Sorry, sir…what were you saying?”

“I was asking you if you wanted to work around my shop. Lifting, loading and unloading carts for delivery.” He crossed his arms, “minding the shop when I’m out, it’s a lot of strength which I know you got a lot of but you gotta be sharp too. I’m not in the market for a dense lift.” Steven was about to continue the long list of things he didn’t need Magnus to do, as if to convince himself away from this outrageously generous notion.

Before he could his shoulders were hugged by large hands and he was briefly lifted off the ground with joyous might. “You’d really give me a job? Just like that!?”

“Why are you surprised? Is there a reason I shouldn’t give you a job?” He paused, “other than the fact he haven’t put me down, boy.”

Magnus slowly placed the man back on his feet and took two, wide steps back away from him. “Right…sorry about that” he looked up and then quickly added, “sir.”

Oh he was a dense one. Steven was sure of that. He was also, what seemed to Steven, to be an open book. Magnus seemed genuine which meant Kalen and his goons would probably drive him out of town faster than Magnus could settle in. In all honesty it would have been better for Magnus if that happened.

He was better off far from Raven’s Roost and the way it was going with all the regulations, taxes and unwanted changes to their lifestyle and culture. However, how could Steven in his heart of hearts let this man be ran out of house and home? When it was clear Magnus didn’t have all of his eggs in his basket, his wits were wavering and well…Steven was sure in the state of lost Magnus was in he wouldn’t last a day out there.

The stranger who seemed to just, come out of thin air was better off here nesting in among the others in Raven’s Roost while Steven kept a close eye on him and the predator known as Governor Kalen.

“Bright and early tomorrow or don’t bother showing up Magnus.” Steven steadied his thoughts as he threw a bone to this stranger, hoping his actions wouldn’t cause him to be bitten by his good intentions.

Magnus smiled, “I won’t let you down sir, I promise.” And he meant it.


End file.
